Trump cancels White House Christmas party for the press. Who can blame him?

Trump cancels White House Christmas party for the press. Who can blame him?
FLOTUS presents the White House Christmas decorations. (Image via Twitter video, White House)

The question in the title was intended to be rhetorical, but since word of the cancellation got around, it’s found an answer: the press.

Fox News, which broke the story earlier today, writes that the president’s decision to scratch the annual event made “the decades-old tradition a victim of his increasingly contentious relationship with major news organizations.”

Regardless of how you answer the chicken-or-egg question of who cast the first stone, the media have been unremittingly hostile to Trump, according him 90% negative coverage. At a time, moreover, when Christmas is under siege by the media — the HuffPo recently reminded its readers that saying “Merry Christmas” excludes people — raising a glass of holiday cheer might feel out-of-place.

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The media’s reaction to the news of the party’s cancellation is predictable — and priceless. At 7:49 this morning, CNN’s April Ryan tweeted out “This is just sad on a lot of levels! Trump cancels White House Christmas party for the press,” then minutes later added:

Other outlets were just straight-out accusatory:

Of the tradition, Fox notes:

The annual Christmas-season gathering was a significant perk for those covering the White House, as well as other Washington reporters, anchors and commentators, and New York media executives would regularly fly in for the occasion. At its peak, the invitation-only soirees grew so large that there were two back-to-back events, one for broadcast outlets and one for print organizations.

Presumably invitations went out to some higher-up government officials as well, but that would be equally inappropriate at least for Nancy Pelosi, who, one guesses, doesn’t celebrate Christmas anymore.

Howard Portnoy

Howard Portnoy

Howard Portnoy has written for The Blaze, HotAir, NewsBusters, Weasel Zippers, Conservative Firing Line, RedCounty, and New York’s Daily News. He has one published novel, Hot Rain, (G. P. Putnam’s Sons), and has been a guest on Radio Vice Online with Jim Vicevich, The Alana Burke Show, Smart Life with Dr. Gina, and The George Espenlaub Show.

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